Tuesday, March 2, 2010

La Ville-Lumière

I never in my life thought I'd make my way out to Paris. Although rushed and short on time, Paris was spectacular. It was different than I'd expected...bustling city, lots of people rushing around, beautiful architecture and the phantom of the opera himself!

We arrived in Paris around half eight and hurried our way to the Eiffel Tower. As we approached the tower I said, "This isn't real." I could say this over and over again, but I really never imagined going to Paris and it took it a while to sink in that I was actually there! The tower started its grand display of glittering lights and you could hear squeals and ooh-ahs throughout the ground. We went all the way to the top and got to see all of Paris lit up at night. It's a beautiful view up there!

The next day we had a bus tour and saw all the main attractions of Paris. The Arc de Triomphe, the opera house where the idea of Phantom of the Opera was created, the Louvre, Notre Dame, Luxembourg, the Pantheon and much more. Our hotel was in the Red Light District of Paris and we weren't too far from Moulin Rouge! It was nice to see everything in one sitting so next time I go I can actually live a little. I definitely need to go back and see Versailles!

Saturday night we had a group dinner at a little restaurant in the Latin Quarter. It was a quaint place where 7 loud, giggling Americans were a little out of place. I'm definitely going to hit up some French lessons before I go back. I realized I only knew about 3 words in French - hello, goodbye, and thank you...and I completely butchered them all.